Education panel inks smaller budget - News

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Aug. 09, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Education panel inks smaller budget

But board member says bigger class sizes still might be necessary

By JAMES HAUG
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Increasing class sizes, eliminating teacher signing bonuses and slashing textbook funding by 50 percent are just a few of the painful steps that might be needed if the state Board of Education is to comply with the governor's goal of reducing its budget by 14 percent over the next two years.

"We are really scraping the bottom of the barrel," said James Wells, the deputy superintendent for finance at a meeting of the board Friday.

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The state board approved a tentative budget that would reduce funding by $101 million for fiscal year 2009-10 and by $162 million for fiscal year 2010-11.

Because of the economic downturn, state education officials anticipate shortfalls in revenues from property taxes and gaming taxes and expect growth in student enrollment to slow to less than 2 percent over the next two years.

Officials emphasized their budget was intended only as a recommendation, meant to give guidance to the governor and the Legislature before lawmakers meet in January to hammer out the state budget for the next two fiscal years.

"A lot of this could change," said Keith Rheault, the state superintendent of public instruction, adding that he was not even sure whether the governor's goal of reducing all state agencies' budgets by 14 percent even applied to K-12 education.

For planning purposes, however, education officials would like lawmakers to concentrate on eliminating one-time grants and special programs first, such as cutting a "library database fund" by 14 percent.

However, Barbara Myers, a board member from Carson City, said the state ultimately would have to look at increasing class sizes. "That's the only place (in the budget) where there is lots of money," she said.

If the state increased the first, second and third-grade class sizes by one student each to 17 per classroom, it could save $25 million in 2009-10 and $26 million in the next year.

But officials also recognized that Clark County already has the biggest class sizes in the country, at least at the middle school and high school levels.

In all, the staff recommended 16 budget item reductions, eliminating or cutting back on funding for empowerment schools, remediation programs, public television, apprenticeship programs, early childhood education, library books, substitute teachers, adult education, cultural diversity programs and support staffing for schools not showing progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The state board, meeting in both Las Vegas and Carson City, communicated by teleconference. Members of the public in Las Vegas, however, still felt left out, criticizing the board and staff for providing handouts on meeting topics such as the budget and new charter school regulations.

"We have no backup material to any of these items," said Karen Gray, a Henderson resident.

Greg Nance, the only state board member who was at the Las Vegas meeting location, came dressed in a muscle T-shirt and was often sleeping and kissing his wife throughout the meeting.

After the meeting, Nance told the Review-Journal that he just returned from a honeymoon.

"I was a little sleepy," he said.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. CAS127 wrote on August 11, 2008 03:32 PM: "We are really scraping the bottom of the barrel," said James Wells Enough whining, Wells. Shut up and do your job - or we will find someone else who can do it without the endless carping commentary. Signed, Your bosses, the Taxpayers. tuffteacher1 wrote on August 10, 2008 11:22 PM: Brian: I agree with you. If a person is going to criticize others, then he should proofread his own critique. Don't forget that reggie also asked two questions, but ended each question with a period rather than a queston mark. How easy it is to throw out ignorant ideas for cut backs in education when you get all your information from print and news media. Why don't you get up from your lazy boy and investigate the state of education for yourself. Brian wrote on August 09, 2008 04:25 PM: reggie writes: "It is comical to read these blogs bashing education written by people that can’t spell!" Your mistakes: "cutbacks" and not "cut backs"; "people who" and not "people that"; and "La-Z-Boy" and not "lazy boy." If you're going to criticize others, you should get it right. Shannon wrote on August 09, 2008 04:19 PM: Brian: I pretty much signed it for the same reason as your friend. We all know the "union" won't bother defending us for not signing such a document. I was told that it was our "plan" for the next school year that had to go to the legislature, but that is not what the paper said. Every year, I questioned it, and every year I got the same response...pretty much sign it or else. I signed it because that was a battle I chose not to fight. It should certainly be easy enough to find out how many students any given teacher had in any given year. reggie wrote on August 09, 2008 04:09 PM: It is comical to read these blogs bashing education written by people that can’t spell! How easy it is to throw out ignorant ideas for cut backs in education when you get all your information from print and news media. Why don't you get up from your lazy boy and investigate the state of education for yourself. Brian wrote on August 09, 2008 03:50 PM: Shannon, Why did you sign it? I have friend who had to sign, too. She asked what would happen if she didn't sign it, and the response, "Do you want to continue teaching?" But she was new. Why did you sign it? Shannon wrote on August 09, 2008 02:51 PM: Just so the public knows, class size reduction in the elementary schools is not followed as it should be per Nevada law. I ALWAYS had more students in my class than the law stated, yet every year I had to sign a paper that stated the school was following through with class size reduction. Jon H. wrote on August 09, 2008 01:38 PM: Jeff, any tax on a business is nothing more than a regressive tax on the customers of that business. In the case of placing a new tax on Wal-Mart, i.e. the customers of Wal-Mart, It means you and me. I will agree to a flat tax as it relates to "needed" government services to the people, but I question if you really want a regressive tax placed on the people. Is that what you propose? With regards to the schools, I see the top administration person as being the Principle at each school, hired by and accountable to the elected school board of the people that live in that school’s geographic location and to a generalized education standard provided by and audited by the state. Thus, the parents have a direct say in the quality and the direction of education of their school. What can be better than local control, as opposed to centralized control . . . where the one size fits type of administrative control is slapped on everyone. In other words, I think the all the school district administrative layers above the school principle should be eliminated, as no school district would exist. Jeff wrote on August 09, 2008 12:45 PM: How about we tax those business that are not paying their fair share? Businesses like Wal-Mart are not paying what they should in taxes. try it you'll love it wrote on August 09, 2008 12:35 PM: Right now, the district is enjoying a main superintendent and 3 superintendents at each regional level. How about we eliminate the district into each region being their own district and cut out the top. The superintendents in place at each region run their own little district. Read All Comments